TOTOWA, N.J.---Bishop Robert P. Deeley, current Bishop of the Diocese of Portland, traveled to New Jersey for a celebration honoring the 75th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood for Archbishop Peter Leo Gerety, the eighth Bishop of Portland (pictures, captions below). Archbishop Gerety, who will turn 102 on July 19, is the second oldest bishop in the world and the oldest bishop in the United States. He is currently the Archbishop Emeritus of Newark.

The Mass of Thanksgiving was held on Sunday, June 29, at the Little Sisters of the Poor’s Saint Joseph Home for the Elderly in Totowa, New Jersey, where Archbishop Gerety now resides. The current Archbishop of Newark, John J. Myers, served as main celebrant of the Mass, while Father Stephen F. Concannon, who served as a priest in the Diocese of Portland from 1964 until his retirement in 2009, gave the homily.

“He loved, and still loves, Maine,” said Fr. Concannon, who also once served as Archbishop Gerety’s secretary. “Its priests and people and especially the waters of Casco Bay where he loved to sail. And we truly love him.”

Born in 1912, Peter Leo Gerety was named the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Portland on September 15, 1969. He had served as coadjutor bishop for the diocese from March 1966 to February 1967, at which time he was named apostolic administrator of the diocese. Archbishop Gerety was ordained to the priesthood in 1939 and served in various capacities at parishes in Connecticut before being assigned to Maine.

During his tenure as Bishop of the Diocese of Portland, Bishop Gerety founded a number of new parishes in the suburbs and metropolitan areas; the first diocesan capital campaign was held to construct the Newman Center in Orono; the Diocesan Human Relations Services (DHRS), which was the precursor to Catholic Charities Maine, became a statewide agency; and the diocese also opened its first units of low-income elderly housing in Portland and in Waterville. Bishop Gerety oversaw the modernization of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and led a campaign to defend the rights of conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War.

In 1974, Bishop Gerety was appointed Archbishop of Newark where he served until 1986.